20031025

Opposition vows to tackle referendum

JOINT DECLARATION: The KMT and PFP said that they would complete the legislation before next year's presidential election, after which they want to focus on the Constitution

By Fiona Lu

STAFF REPORTER

High-ranking officials of the pan-blue parties inked a joint declaration yesterday, vowing that they would complete referendum legislation before next year's presidential election.

According to the joint declaration, the pan-blue alliance would engage in amending the ROC Constitution if Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong are elected in March.

"The two parties will tackle the referendum legislation to honor people's right of initiative and referendum before the presidential election. We are also determined to carry out constitutional amendments after the election, revamping the Constitution according to the expectations of mainstream opinion," said KMT Secretary General Lin Fong-cheng.

The joint declaration was issued one day after the KMT and PFP presented their version of a referendum law, which would prevent the government taking the initiative to hold a referendum. It also stated that the referendum issue should be separated from the presidential election and excluded from being subject to a referendum virtually all of the controversial topics concerning national identity on which referendums have been suggested.

The pan-blue declaration was unveiled on the eve of a march in Kaohsiung today. Pan-green parties initiated the march in favor of referendum legislation and claimed that an expected 150,000 to 200,000 people would participate in the march.

"Representing the mainstream opinion, pan-blue lawmakers will institutionalize the practice of holding referendums, with the principle that a referendum must be initiated in accordance with the Constitution and should only be held if asked for by the people," Lin said.

Opposing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union's (TSU) goal to formulate a new constitution, the pan-blue parties said they would focus on solving the issue of minority government and the presidency, as well as lowering the voting age to 18 and further protecting the political participation of women, by overhauling the existing Constitution after the presidential election.

In response, DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai demanded a promise from the KMT-PFP alliance that pan-blue lawmakers would help to complete the formulation of a draft referendum law before Nov. 12, when cross-party negotiations on the issue are slated to finish.

"The KMT-PFP alliance should promise that they are really committed to formulating the referendum law by Nov. 12, or their presidential candidate should withdraw from the 2004 election," Chen said.

The pan-blue parties are notorious for breaking their promises about the legal formulation of political reform, Chen said.

The Legislative Yuan is expected to discuss two draft referendum bills, presented by the DPP and the pan-blue partiesrespectively , next week after lawmakers agreed yesterday to pass the DPP's version on to the second reading.

Bush urged to back referendums

By Charles Snyder

STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON

Two members of the recently-formed Senate Taiwan Caucus have written to US President George W. Bush urging his administration to support Taiwan's right to enact a law permitting referendums, and to hold referendums that do not touch on the issue of independence or unification with China.

The letter, sent Wednesday, is the first "official" act of the caucus since it was formed on Sept. 17. Since its formation, its original 10 members have grown to 17 senators, including the top Democrat in the Senate, minority leader Thomas Daschle, and the chairman of the East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee, Republican Sam Brownback.

"We believe that a Taiwan referendum law is a basic democratic right that should be supported by your administration," said the letter, which was written by George Allen, a co-chairman, and John Kyl, a leading supporter of Taiwan in Congress.

The letter stressed that President Chen Shui-bian, in proposing the referendum law, pledged not to hold a vote on the independence-unification issue.

Chen "has made it clear that he continues to hold to the `five noes' of his inauguration speech, including the promise not to hold a plebiscite on the issue of independence," the two senators said.

"We believe that President Chen's promise meets the US concerns that there be no unilateral moves by either the People's Republic of China or Taiwan concerning resolution of the Taiwan Strait question," the letter said

Noting that the US is the "foremost champion of liberty and democracy in the world," the letter said, "We can, therefore, not afford to tell the people of Taiwan not to hold a referendum. There can be no double standard when it comes to exercising democracy."

Wu Ming-chi, president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, a lobbying group in Washington, praised the letter, noting that it was sent on the same day that Vice President Annette Lu kicked off the referendum campaign by lighting a torch at the southern tip of Taiwan in advance of today's Kaohsiung referendum rally.

Rally to promote referendum law to go ahead today

AP , TAIPEI

Lawmakers and activists have planned a massive march in Kaohsiung today to push for a new law allowing nationwide referendums.

The Democratic Progressive Party said both President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu would speak at the parade .

The referendum march is timed to coincide with so-called Retrocession Day, a day marking the anniversary of Taiwan's supposed return to Chinese rule in 1945 after 50 years of Japanese occupation.

The introduction of referendums is a key element in the president's campaign ahead of the March presidential election.

Chen has promised not to hold an independence referendum as long as China doesn't attack. He has said he wants to hold a vote on pressing domestic issues, such as whether construction on a controversial nuclear plant should be completed.

Different proposals for referendum laws are up for review in the legislature.

Australia asked to help unify China

POLITICS AND BUSINESS: Chinese President Hu Jintao became the fourth foreign leader to address Australia's parliament and said he expected help with `reunification'

AP , CANBERRA

Chinese President Hu Jintao yesterday became the first Asian leader to address Australia's parliament and urged Canberra to play a "constructive role" in unifying Taiwan with China.

Hu made his appearance less than 24 hours after US President George W. Bush gave a speech before the special joint session.

Hu pledged to let Australia benefit from his country's explosive economic growth, but hinted that doing business with Beijing also hinged on Canberra respecting China's sovereignty and not commenting on its internal affairs.

Hu and Prime Minister John Howard witnessed the signing by their officials of four separate trade and economic treaties, including a potentially lucrative energy deal for China to invest in liquid natural gas development in Australia.

The main "framework agreement" sets a "road map" for the conduct of trade and economic ties. The leaders also agreed to a preliminary study on a free-trade pact.

Hu became only the fourth foreign leader -- after three US presidents, including Bush on Thursday -- to address the parliament.

He told a special joint sitting that Beijing expected Canberra to play a "constructive role in China's peaceful reunification."

"A peaceful solution to the Taiwan question serves the interest of all the Chinese people ... just as it serves the common interests of all countries in the region, including Australia," he said.

At a joint press conference afterward, Howard reaffirmed Australia's commitment to a "one China" policy that sees Taiwan as part of Chinese territory.

The honor extended to Hu angered some lawmakers.

"The parliamentary address sets a precedent by honoring the head of a totalitarian regime in the elected chamber," said Senator Brian Harradine, an independent lawmaker who boycotted the speech.

In his address, Hu said that Beijing was "ready to be your [Australia's] long-term and stable cooperation partner."

"I am convinced that this framework will help steer our bilateral cooperation in economy, trade and other fields to continuous new highs," he said.

On Thursday, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer deflected criticism that too much attention was being focused on economic links during Hu's visit and not enough on China's human-rights record.

"What we've done in the past is talk with the Chinese about some of the sensitive issues, which is Tibet and the Falun Gong and freedom of speech and these kinds of traditional human-rights and civil-liberties issues," Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.

Madame Chiang dies at 105

TURBULENT HISTORY: The widow of former president Chiang Kai-shek died in her sleep at her apartment in New York after developing pneumonia the day before

REUTERS AND AP , TAIPEI

Soong Mayling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, once the most powerful woman in China, has died in her sleep aged 105 in her home in New York, finally bringing down the curtain on one of the most turbulent chapters of Chinese history.

She caught a cold Wednesday and developed pneumonia symptoms "before going very peacefully" at home Thursday night, said Chiang Fang Chih-yi, widow of her husband's grandson Chiang Hsiao-yung.

She spent much of the time in semi-seclusion in her Manhattan apartment and made her last visit to Taiwan in 1995.

Famed as much for her iron will as for her beauty, Soong lived through a century of turmoil in China and was feared for decades as a formidable force behind her husband, former president Chiang Kai-shek.

"She was probably the greatest lady in modern Chinese history," Andrew Hsia, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, said yesterday.

"As an old lady of 104 or 105, she was marvellous, very articulate. She recognized people, so I was impressed," said Hsia, who had met the former first lady twice in recent years.

Hsia said her niece and her niece's husband were with Soong when she died at her apartment in Manhattan, where she had lived with a few nurses and security guards.

Soong was born Feb. 12, 1898, on Hainan island -- but she was thoroughly Western in thought and philosophy. Brought up in a Methodist family, she studied in the US between the ages of 10 and 19, graduating with honors from Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1917.

"The only thing Oriental about me is my face," she once said.

Soong met her husband around 1920, and married him Dec. 1, 1927, as he was crushing warlord armies to unify China under Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule.

She later converted him to Methodism. The Chiangs' marriage was often stormy, in part because of her husband's infidelities.

During World War II, Soong brought the US congress to its feet with a passionate appeal for anti-Japanese aid. Her political adeptness as a roving ambassador for the war-ravaged country led the foreign press to dub her "the brains of China."

"The Madame fought a beautiful battle and has been received by heaven," said Chiang Fang Chih-yi, at an emotional news conference in Taipei.

The weeping Chang Fang praised the former first lady's humanitarian work, her founding of relief organizations and schools for orphans, and promotion of women's rights.

Those who have met her say Soong's charisma was matched only by her toughness. At a White House dinner with then president Franklin Roosevelt she was asked about a troublesome US union leader and how her government would deal with him.

A mystery over Soong's age was never resolved. The government says she was born on Feb. 12, 1898. But records at her former college in the US show she was born on June 5, 1897.

Soong is survived by the grandchildren and great grandchildren of her stepson Chiang Ching-kuo.

OctOBER 25 is Taiwan's so-called "Retrocession Day." According to Chiang Kai-shek -- head of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and ROC government until his death in 1975 -- and his followers, it was Nationalist forces who liberated Taiwan from Japanese rule and returned Taiwan to the embrace of China. The KMT consequently picked Oct. 25th, 1945 as "Retrocession Day." Their claim, however, is self-serving and groundless.

Taiwan became a Japanese colony after 1895 when Japan annexed Taiwan and adjacent islands as a reward for her military victory over China. Up to the late 1930s, major Chinese leaders such as Mao Zedong had accepted that Taiwan was Japanese territory and even argued that Taiwan, like Korea, should become independent of Japanese colonial rule. In addition, after Japanese forces began their all-out attack against China in July 1937, the Chinese, both Nationalists and Communists, were busy fighting for their own survival against the invaders. The Chinese were definitely not fighting the war against Japan to liberate other nations from colonial rule.

It is an indisputable fact that the defeat of Japan in World War II was essentially a result of the efforts of the US. It was thus the US that liberated Taiwan as well as Korea from Japanese colonial rule and helped China end a prolonged military occupation. With the withdrawal of the Japanese, the supreme commander of the allied powers in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur, entrusted Taiwan's post-war administration to Chiang and his government.

Japan's renouncement of sovereignty over Taiwan was officially confirmed with the signing of the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty. Even the subsequent 1952 Peace Treaty between Japan and the KMT regime in Taiwan repeated Japan's renouncement of her claim over Taiwan. Neither treaty designated a specific country as the recipient of the renounced sovereignty.

In this era of human rights, this irrefutable fact can and must be interpreted in favor of the inhabitants of Taiwan. In this light, this renounced sovereignty over Taiwan, morally as well as legally, according to UN self-determination, has fallen into the laps of the Taiwanese.

It is clear that the people of Taiwan have no reason to help celebrate this "Retrocession Day," which was introduced by the KMT, and which has come to symbolize the latest instance of Taiwan falling under alien rule -- the rule of the illegitimate KMT regime. As part of the ongoing process of ridding Taiwan of the residue of this alien regime, the celebration of "Retrocession Day" ought to be seriously reconsidered.

Chen Ching-chih is professor emeritus of history at the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and a member of the Los Angeles-based Institute of Taiwanese Studies.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has recently seen a rise in public support. Deputy Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan attributed this rise to numerous gaffes made by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan during his current trip to Europe and the US. By criticizing President Chen Shui-bian in his speeches but failing to propose concrete policy, Lee argues, Lien has boosted Chen's support rating.

Lee's remarks were somewhat impolite but no less true. Lien has generated news throughout his trip, but most of it has been rather negative.

An example: While in the UK, he reportedly complained that Taiwan's representative office there had given him the cold shoulder. While in the Czech Republic, he wrangled with Chen Shih-meng, a former secretary-general of the presidential office, over who really represented Taiwan at the Forum 2000 conference. In the US, he criticized the DPP government for leading the country down the path to "ruin" over the past three years.

Lien's remarks provoked a backlash and accusations that he was airing the nation's dirty laundry overseas. Even Lien's new cross-strait rhetoric has stirred up big trouble. At a meeting held by the US-China Policy Foundation on Capitol Hill on Oct. 21, Lien pushed the line that "one China" refers to the Republic of China, apparently different to the People's Republic of China.

Lien's remarks convey nothing new, nor can they resolve the real-life problems facing Taiwan. Instead, they have created a new dispute within the blue camp. Lien's position -- that "one China" means the ROC -- has been the KMT's traditional position since the party retreated to Taiwan in 1949. But the ROC lost its right to represent China after losing its UN seat in 1971.

Lien's proposal will not find acceptance in China, Taiwan or anywhere else in the rest of the world. This is why former president Lee Teng-hui, after 12 years at the helm, finally decided to announce the demise of the ROC and lobby for a change of the national title to "Taiwan."

Lien's latest "one China" rhetoric has overturned his previous support for a confederation with China, as well as the People First Party's (PFP) "one China rooftop" framework. This will result in a policy conflict between the cross-strait policies of the KMT and the PFP, thereby heightening tensions within the pan-blue camp.

In fact, Lien's new position is the same as Chen Shui-bian's "one country on each side" of the Taiwan Strait dictum. It came as no surprise then that Premier Yu Shyi-kun welcomed Lien's "change of heart" regarding the nation's status and Lien's "support" for Chen's "one country on each side."

Ever since they teamed up for next year's election, the KMT and PFP have focused on negative campaigning. They have failed to present any concrete policy platform. Meanwhile, Chen and Lee have been presenting a succession of policies -- from introducing referendums to changing the country's name to enacting a new constitution. The KMT and the PFP have shown a pronounced inability to lead policy debate. And the one policy proposed by Lien has turned into a campaign booster for the DPP. The blue camp's lead in the polls may not last for too much longer if this situation continues.